Zigbee2MQTT & aqara-devices pairing with Sonoff ZBBridge as router not possible any more (vs. IKEA Tradfri repeater)

MarkusL · February 3, 2023, 10:51pm

Dear Community,

I am a little bit confused at the moment.
It´s an old topic: aqara-devices and Zigbee2MQTT in Home Assistant.
With this post I try to collect some information - hopefully to better involve manufacturers like Aqara.

My problem at the moment

I need to expand my zigbee-network in the basement (UG) and don´t know, if I should go with Sonoff as routers or IKEA Tradfri as repeaters.

Background information

In history I was definitly able to pair some aqara-devices directly to a (sonoff-) router by forcing the “Permit Join” only to a specific (sonoff-) router.
NOT the coordinator. And now it won´t work any more - I can do what I want: 30 times tried at minimum; no success. With no change to my network-setup (except software-updates).
If I go with the same aqara-end-device to the (sonoff-) coordinator I need a max. of 3 times and I get every aqara device connected.

Going with the same device in the near of a IKEA Tradfri repeater I can connect the aqara-device, too (if I force the “Permit Join” in Home Assistant).

Questions

What is going on here?
How can I debug that?

About my setup

This is a map-view of my zigbee-network. I have hidden the blue lines from all blue devices directly to the coordinator to get a better view of the connections. So please see a full blue line from every blue circle to the coordinator:

My network is operating rock solid. A device that is paired stays paired.
I never had any kind of drops or outages nor fastly empty batteries.

Except one device: the Aqara TVOC. This device dropped constantly when paired with a sonoff router (in OG). Since pairing it with the sonoff-coordinator it stays connected. Now it “only” throughs me an error when doing an OTA-request. The log to that:

Info 2023-02-04 11:15:03Checking if update available for 'Temp/Hum - EG | Wohnzimmer'
Info 2023-02-04 11:16:03MQTT publish: topic 'zigbee2mqtt/bridge/response/device/ota_update/check', payload '{"data":{"id":"Temp/Hum - EG | Wohnzimmer"},"error":"Failed to check if update available for 'Temp/Hum - EG | Wohnzimmer' (Device didn't respond to OTA request)","status":"error","transaction":"t2hv1-1"}'
Error 2023-02-04 11:16:03Failed to check if update available for 'Temp/Hum - EG | Wohnzimmer' (Device didn't respond to OTA request)
Debug 2023-02-04 11:16:03Error: Device didn't respond to OTA request at requestOTA (/app/node_modules/zigbee-herdsman-converters/lib/ota/common.js:191:15) at Object.isUpdateAvailable (/app/node_modules/zigbee-herdsman-converters/lib/ota/common.js:246:25) at OTAUpdate.onMQTTMessage (/app/lib/extension/otaUpdate.ts:203:45)

Coordinator (1x) / Router (2x)

Sonoff ZBBridge (EFR32MG21)

Repeater (3x)

IKEA Tradfri (E1746)

Aqara-products

Other products

My zigbee-network coexists with a unifi-WLAN (5 accesspoints).
Zigbee at channel 11, unifi-2,4GHz-WLAN at channels 1 and 6.

The zigbee-network has an operating-age of about 2 month without longer interruptions.
So it should be called “settled”.

Debug Information

a. Home Assistant

Home Assistant 2023.2.1
Supervisor 2023.01.1
Operating System 9.5
Frontend 20230202.0 - latest

Zigbee2MQTT version: 1.30.0 commit: unknown
Coordinator type: EZSP v8
Coordinator revision: 6.7.9.0 build 405
Coordinator IEEE Address: 0x040d84fffe4da3da
Frontend version: 0.6.124

b. Zigbee-Coordinator: Sonoff ZBBridge

zigbee-bridge
Program Version	12.2.0.4(zbbridge)
Build Date & Time	2022-11-13T11:56:21
Core/SDK Version	2_7_4_9/2.2.2-dev(38a443e)
Uptime	67T21:51:39
Flash write Count	36 at 0xFC000
Boot Count	18
Restart Reason	Power On
 
AP1 SSId (RSSI)	<SSID> (82%, -59 dBm) 11n
<IP-Settings>
 
HTTP API	Enabled
 
MQTT Host	
MQTT Port	1883
MQTT TLS	Disabled
MQTT User	DVES_USER
MQTT Client	DVES_E17F47
MQTT Topic	tasmota_%06X
MQTT Group Topic 1	cmnd/tasmotas/
MQTT Full Topic	cmnd/tasmota_E17F47/
MQTT Fallback Topic	cmnd/DVES_E17F47_fb/
MQTT No Retain	Disabled
 
Emulation	None
 
ESP Chip Id	14778183 (ESP8266EX)
Flash Chip Id	0x1540A1 (DOUT)
Flash Size	2048 KB
Program Flash Size	2048 KB
Program Size	716 KB
Free Program Space	1072 KB
Free Memory	25.6 KB

c. Zigbee-Router “OG”: Sonoff ZBBridge

Program Version	12.2.0(zbbridge)
Build Date & Time	2022-10-17T08:42:26
Core/SDK Version	2_7_4_9/2.2.2-dev(38a443e)
Uptime	0T00:35:45
Flash write Count	56 at 0x1FB000
Boot Count	23
Restart Reason	Power On
Friendly Name 1	zigbee-router-og
Friendly Name 2	
 
AP1 SSId (RSSI)	<SSID> (62%, -69 dBm) 11n
<IP-Settings>
 
HTTP API	Enabled
 
MQTT Host	
MQTT Port	1883
MQTT TLS	Disabled
MQTT User	DVES_USER
MQTT Client	DVES_E187C4
MQTT Topic	tasmota_%06X
MQTT Group Topic 1	cmnd/tasmotas/
MQTT Full Topic	cmnd/tasmota_E187C4/
MQTT Fallback Topic	cmnd/DVES_E187C4_fb/
MQTT No Retain	Disabled
 
Emulation	None
 
ESP Chip Id	14780356 (ESP8266EX)
Flash Chip Id	0x1540A1 (DOUT)
Flash Size	2048 KB
Program Flash Size	2048 KB
Program Size	714 KB
Free Program Space	1076 KB
Free Memory	26.4 KB

d. Zigbee-Router “UG”: Sonoff ZBBridge

Program Version	12.2.0(zbbridge)
Build Date & Time	2022-10-17T08:42:26
Core/SDK Version	2_7_4_9/2.2.2-dev(38a443e)
Uptime	77T21:53:01
Flash write Count	78 at 0xFD000
Boot Count	8
Restart Reason	Power On
Friendly Name 1	zigbee-router-ug
Friendly Name 2	
 
AP1 SSId (RSSI)	<SSID> (90%, -55 dBm) 11n
<IP-Settings>
 
HTTP API	Enabled
 
MQTT Host	
MQTT Port	1883
MQTT TLS	Disabled
MQTT User	DVES_USER
MQTT Client	DVES_E180BF
MQTT Topic	tasmota_%06X
MQTT Group Topic 1	cmnd/tasmotas/
MQTT Full Topic	cmnd/tasmota_E180BF/
MQTT Fallback Topic	cmnd/DVES_E180BF_fb/
MQTT No Retain	Disabled
 
Emulation	None
 
ESP Chip Id	14778559 (ESP8266EX)
Flash Chip Id	0x1540A1 (DOUT)
Flash Size	2048 KB
Program Flash Size	2048 KB
Program Size	714 KB
Free Program Space	1076 KB
Free Memory	26.2 KB

Best matching topics found

I found some interesting infos here - FYI also:

Aqara Devices only connect to the Coordinator #1608: Aqara Devices only connect to the Coordinator · Issue #1608 · ioBroker/ioBroker.zigbee · GitHub
Cannot connect new devices to a TRADFRI repeater #2879: Cannot connect new devices to a TRADFRI repeater · Issue #2879 · Koenkk/zigbee2mqtt · GitHub
Repairing Aqara Devices from Coordinator to Router: How to, Aqara Zigbee devices
Aqara only paires with Coordinator: Pairing always happen at coordinator level, instead of router
generally good information about a zigbee-network: Xiaomi & Aqara Devices - Pairing & Keeping them connected - Devices - Hubitat
How to Build a Solid Zigbee Mesh | Hubitat Documentation

Conclusion

What do you think about that situation?
Any hints?

I would love to debug the problem of not pairing any more to my two sonoff-routers (which worked) as this would be my favorite setup to have 5 sonoff-devices in my house as backbone.
Attached to them the IKEA Tradfri and on all that devices the end-devices.

Cross-posts in other forums

Tasmota-Forum: https://github.com/arendst/Tasmota/discussions/17873

Thank you all and kind regards,
Markus.

Walt12 · February 4, 2023, 3:14am

Maybe I am missing something here, but I just installed a few Sonoff SB40 smart outlets around the house and let them act as repeaters. Seems to be working fine for me.

HA_n00b · February 4, 2023, 3:38am

I’m curious, have you contacted Aqara support and asked them? I read this kind of issues several times, there must be something that Aqara support know.

francisp · February 4, 2023, 4:45am

There might be some confusion here:

Wi-Fi’s three non-overlapping channels (1, 6, and 11) use the exact same frequencies as ZigBee channels 11-22.

MarkusL · February 4, 2023, 10:01am

Dear Walt12,
do you know what chipset the sonoff SB40 have?
And can you give me info about “Model” you see in HA?
A picture of your map would be interesting, too to see, that the end-devices bind / pair to the repeaters.

MarkusL · February 4, 2023, 10:05am

Dear HA_n00b,
as I research about that topic for quite a while now and get highly contrary information about problems their solutions I now try to concentrate all information in this single post - with the help of all you.
My goal is to get a good quality post in that I can involve all participating parties to see, where it comes from.

Did already a cross-post at tasmota:

I will share those links in my first topic to have a good overview for us all.
Hope that helps.

MarkusL · February 4, 2023, 10:58am

Dear Francis,

this is quite interesting as I really did not get it right.
My understanding was: Zigbee ONLY uses channel 11 and “up”.
So separating 2,4GHz-wlan to channels 1 and 6 and Zigbee to 11 and we are done.

Following this path there occure some further questions to me:

can I see / visualize, which channel are used by zigbee-network-members?
can I configure, which channels are used by zigbee-coordinator and routers?
repeater and end-devices will follow that config so nothing to do here, right?

MarkusL · February 4, 2023, 11:35am

First test here:
have reconfigured my unifi-accesspoint (UAC-Lite) from channel 1 to 11.
Powercycled my sonoff-router which sits 2m away from the unifi-ap after that.
The routers LQI raised from 80 to 176! Wow.

Just for my curiousity I tried to pair a aqara door-sensor with my sonoff-router.
No change - can´t get it to pair. So no difference here.

Walt12 · February 4, 2023, 3:02pm

Here is a snapshot of the device in z2m

And here is the map

MarkusL · February 4, 2023, 5:27pm

Dear Walt12,
thanks for your information.
Do you remember how you build up your network:
Did you first pair the repeaters and then the end-devices? Or mixed.
Did you force pairing to specific repeaters or “Permit all”?

Walt12 · February 4, 2023, 6:11pm

I first installed the sonoff outlets around the house. Then I started adding the Aqara sensors. I do not remember limiting access to any of the repeaters so they are probably set to Permit All. I do believe there is a bug in the Aqara sensors, whereby if you set the temperature resolution to zero decimal places, they seem to go to sleep and never report temperature. What I have done is this to help conserver battery life.

I am very new to HA and just started building the system several weeks ago.
Another unique aspect of my design is that I run two virtual servers. The first server runs HA on a Debian Server and the second server is running Ubuntu with ZwaveJsUI, Zigbee2mqtt, and the MQTT Broker (Mosquitto). That has meant that I cannot use the native HA integrations for Zwave and Zigbee. I just let MQTT pull the data from the remote broker.